The present invention relates to a bar code scanner for scanning a bar code or bar codes by an image sensor which is activated electronically.
In a bar code scanning system it is known that a plurality of parallel bar symbols constituting a bar code or bar codes are scanned by an image sensor. As having been suggested in the United States patent application Ser. No. 668,036, filed on Mar. 18, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,271, and assigned to the same assignee as this invention, the image sensor having a plurality of light responsive elements arranged in a straight scanning line is prepared and a record medium recorded with the parallel bar symbols is moved relative to the image sensor such that the parallel bar symbols moves in a direction transverse to the straight scanning line of the image sensor. With periodic clock pulses being applied to activate the light responsive elements one by one, the image sensor scans the parallel bar symbols along the straight scanning line. It is a great advantage of this arrangement that, since the scanning speed is kept electronically at a constant speed, scanning results are almost immune against changes in the moving speed of the record medium.